You Are Never Alone While Travelling

by Muhammad hashim (Pakistan)

A leap into the unknown Turkey

You know it’s not always your hobby or passion that makes you travel around the world. Right? Sometimes, you just need to get out of your anxiety, worry or comfort zone maybe; you might want to get away from the toxic people and enjoy the company of new people, or maybe just want some fresh air. Well, traveling has got you covered and the best part is, you get to meet a diverse range of people from places that even you may not have heard about. You get to meet different people in hostels, on buses, at the cafe, or on tours. Basically, it’s easy to make new friends. The good thing about those people is, there are no strings attached. Oh no, It’s not what you’re thinking. What I mean is, there are no obligations to these friendships. If you’re an extrovert but not in a mood to talk to someone, nobody is going to force you. And, if you’re an introvert but want to enjoy some company, you’ll always find people around you. Traveling gives you unlimited chances to meet people you wouldn’t give a second thought. It takes away your little ego and lets you walk away with some of the best folks you’ll ever know—people who will be there for the rest of your life, ready to pick up right where you left off whenever you happen to meet up again. Yet back home, in the real world, you’ll actually find the opposite. So yeah, I’m talking about my trip to Turkey. I met some of the most amazing people from all over the world. Most of them were Turkish but not all of them. I got to meet Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians, French, Afghans, Egyptians, Arabs and a bunch of others, who became my partners for the rest of my life. Finding these people wasn’t that difficult or maybe I was lucky. Let me give you some tips about how I made those friends. So basically, I, along with this Algerian girl, use to play truth and dare. She dared me to go chat with a guy sitting across the table at a cafe. Fortunately, he was that Arab guy, and this is how my conversation went: “Hey man! Nice shirt. You backpacked Southeast Asia, right?” “Yeah, how did you know?” “I got that same shirt in Vietnam too. I just came back.” “Where did you go?” he said ecstatically. “Everywhere! I was there for nearly a month.” Then suddenly the topic changed to animals, then cars and whatnot. After almost half an hour, I wished him well and went back to the Algerian, happy to have met someone who shared my experience and understood how I was feeling. “Who was that guy?” She asked. No, I didn’t know him. We were simply talking about Vietnam. The Algerian, perplexed by this, replied with only a word: weird. I had broken some social rules simply by doing what travelers around the world do every day. And one more thing, it’s true about Arabs, they are damn rich people. Talking to girls is challenging when you’re in the real world. Their first thought is always “What does this guy want? Is he trying to sleep with me?” I totally understand that. An innocent conversation at a bar is never innocent even when it is. Yet, it’s the opposite when you’re on the travel trail, I have and see tons of innocent conversations between the sexes that revolve anything and everything. Still, be careful and try not to get beat up. Just saying. So, if you ask me, how did I find traveling? My answer would be “Ever visited a place from where you never wanted to come back? Though you have experienced almost everything, met every single person, and visited every near and far place, but still, you enjoy the not so popular things like peace, air, food, and the like. This is what traveling feels like”. Yes I know I was here to talk about people, but you got to take the step out of your comfort zone to enjoy the beautiful people out there.